The Saturday was very quiet, a few Striped Marlin tagged and as many lost, Stripies being what they are. Undoubtably the most outstanding catch of the tournament was by a junior, Hunter Davies, fishing on ‘Tantrum’, who spent seven hours on a Blue Marlin which later weighed one hundred and seventy four point five kilo’s.

Sunday was just as quiet but there were more encounters with big Blue Marlin, fish in the three hundred kilo range. Hopefully a sign of things to come. Sadly, there were no reports of Yellowfin tuna.

The unluckiest boat of the tournament would have had to be Rob Molnar, ‘On Call’. They fished solidly for two days for virtually nothing but then just after the end of fishing hooked and tagged three Striped Marlin.

I went out on Saturday taking Thomas Criniti and his family out to celebrate his father’s sixtieth birthday. The weather was pretty average to start with but soon calmed down. It was decided that Micky, Thomas’ sister would be first up.

Sadly, listening to the tournament scheds with seventy two boats almost all calling zero’s didn’t inspire confidence. Then, just after the high tide the sounder beeped marking a couple of fish twenty fathoms down. So I turned back on them. In only a few minutes later there was a fish coming up behind Brad and yet another on Black Betty at the short corner. Black Betty hooked up and young Micky took the rod, the excitement on board was unbelievable. She did a great job on a very stubborn Striped Marlin which was eventually brought to boat and released.

We saw nothing else for the rest of the day but in general it had been a good fun day and happy to have been among the few who caught fish.

If the water stays as warm and the currents play the game hopefully the Blues will show up and maybe even the Yellowfin will make an appearance  too.

Tight lines,

Ivan